Covering Your Best Friends: A Basic Overview of Pet Insurance

When we consider all the joy that our four legged friends bring into our lives, investing in their health and well being is a small price to pay. The reality is however that the price of keeping an animal safe and healthy is rarely small, especially if emergency veterinary treatment is required. This is why investing in pet insurance is such a great idea as it allows you to spread the cost of caring for your pets over a longer time period and in this way cushions you against the impact of huge vet bills.

There is a vast array of pet insurance products on the market. At a basic level most will offer cover against illness (non pre-existing) and injury.

Depending on your level of cover around 80% of the bills associated with the treatment of an animal will be paid out by basic pet insurance policies. More and more comprehensive pet insurance products are being launched with the express purpose of going beyond this basic level of cover. Some of the things that will most likely be covered by a comprehensive policy include:

• Full Treatment Costs
• Medication
• Extended stays in veterinary centres or ‘pet hospitals’
• Cancer Therapies
• X-ray and laboratory fees

Some policies even go beyond offering the possibility of top level care for pets, to offering ‘pet related care’ in the form of ‘pet life insurance’ to owners. Such policies will pay out a sum of money upon the death of a pet and will also often pay for ‘pet bereavement counselling’ for pet owners.

The rise of comprehensive pet insurance does not mean that you can now insure your pet against just about any eventuality, there are still some things that are excluded from most policies. These include:

• Pre-existing medical problems
• Pregnancy
• Dental problems
• Congenital defects

These general exclusions mean that it will often be necessary to submit your dog or cat (the vast majority of policies cover these two animals) to a medical examination before cover can commence.

In addition to medical emergencies you can also elect to insure your animals on other levels. The most common options are:

• Liability Insurance: Pet owners are legally liable for the actions of their animals. It is therefore increasingly common for dog owners to take out insurance against the possibility of an attack by their dogs in which someone is injured.
• Theft/Loss Insurance: This kind of cover will pay out upon the loss of an animal to help with recovery costs and/or the posting of a reward. In the case of particularly valuable pedigree animals it is also possible to arrange for cover against possible financial loss.

It should be clear from the above that the available options in the field of pet insurance and range from simple emergency cover to complex comprehensive policies. It would therefore be worth your while to carefully determine the level of cover you need and then to shop around for the product, and the price that will best meet your needs.

Summary:

• Basic Pet Insurance Policies offer partial cover against illness and injury
• More comprehensive policies, offering better levels of cover, are increasingly popular
• More and more non-medical policies (e.g. liability and theft/loss insurance are entering the market)
• It pays to shop around for the best level of cover for your circumstances